Gotta Love This Exchange Between Katrina vanden Heuvel And Karl Rove

Karl Rove, a Fox News contributor and former right-hand man to ex-president George W. Bush, has some nerve criticizing President Barack Obama for his budget when he and the Republicans presided over the country during a time when conservatives cut taxes for the wealthy, engaged us in two wars, was ignorant to the oncoming financial crisis and … well the list could go on and on. But, I was intrigued by this brief exchange between Katrina vanden Heuvel and Rove during a panel discussion on ABC’s This Week:

VANDEN HEUEVEL: But, Mr. Rove –

ROVE: Call me Karl.

VANDEN HEUVEL: It’s laughable for you to talk about fiscal responsibility from someone who helped plunge this nation into trillion dollars of debt, through tax cuts for the very rich and a war we never should have fought. And also starving the beast. Starving government has been a Republican role in terms of government. And, therefore, when George asks why government hasn’t functioned, people have not seen the role of government improving the conditions of their lives for decades.

Now, Rove is all about balancing the budget and is so concerned about spending with a Democrat as president. Where was his concern during the Bush years? It is laughable for Republicans to talk about fiscal responsibility after driving us into this borderline economic depression.

Think Progress:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/01/vanden-huevel-rove/

How Stupid Can Rush Limbaugh Be?

At this CPAC political hate rally, I found this comment on the CNN Web site from conservative windbag Rush Limbaugh:

“This notion that I want the president to fail, folks, this shows you a sign of the problem we’ve got,” he said.

“What is so strange about being honest and saying, I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation? Why would I want that to succeed?” he said, bringing the crowd once again to its feet.

“Did the Democrats want the war in Iraq to fail? Well, they certainly did. And they not only wanted the war in Iraq to fail, they proclaimed it a failure.”

How dumb can Rush Limbaugh be? Nothing is strange about being honest, but there is something strange about professing love for this country and then wanting its leader to fail during one of the nation’s most challenging economic periods ever. Dumbest of all, Democrats did not want the war in Iraq to fail. Dummy, Democrats did not want the war in the first place and told then-president George W. Bush that the cost of this ill-advised conflict was way too high. So, to say “certainly they did” is incomprehensibly stupid. Proclaiming it a failure does not mean they wanted it to fail. How stupid is that comment by Limbaugh?

CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/28/limbaugh.speech.cpac/index.html

Are Republicans Losing The Future?

The New York Times has an article on its Web site about Republicans running the risk of damaging the future of its party.

Here is an excerpt from the story:

Americans identifying themselves as Democrats outnumber those who say they are Republicans by 10 percentage points, the largest gap in party identification in 24 years.

The gap has widened significantly since President George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004, when it was a mere 3 percentage points. But by the time Mr. Bush left office in January, less than a quarter of Americans approved of his performance.

It’s beyond the presidency of George W. Bush. We’re becoming more of a multicultural nation and world. The Republican Party simply does not reflect multiculturalism (with all apologies to Michael Steele, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee).

New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/weekinreview/01connelly.html?_r=1&hp

Bill O’Reilly And Glenn Beck, Two Right-Wingers, Ham It Up Talking About Violence

On a recent showing of The O’Reilly Factor,” host Bill O’Reilly and fellow Fox News right-wing host Glenn Beck were having good laughs at the expense of liberals. This is not surprising for O’Reilly who is a right winger trying to portray himself as fair and balanced and as a common man (even though he makes something like $10 million a year). Not too many common people make $10 million a year.

O’REILLY: There’s got to be a reason why Feinstein and Pelosi and Leahy and all these far-left loons want to do damage to the country. This hurts the United States. Al Qaeda — you know who the happiest people in the world are on a CIA investigation? Al Qaeda. They’re the happiest people. Let’s find out what the CIA’s up to. Who does it help? It helps Al Qaeda.

BECK: Are you saying that — Wait a minute, are you saying that these guys might be un-American?

O’REILLY: I’m not saying un-American. I would never say that. I’m saying misguided severely. And maybe should be tortured.

BECK: [Laughs] Who gets to do that?

O’REILLY: We’ll play them your show. For them? That would be really torture.

BECK: Now do they have to watch the whole thing? Because — nah, that might be too much.

O’REILLY: We could strap them to the chair!

Once again, notice how O’Reilly attacks liberals like it’s his job (maybe it is his job). He never seems to attack conservatives at all (nevermind with the same zest). Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck crack themselves up.

Crooks and Liars:

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/oreilly-and-beck-joke-about-torturin

Rush Limbaugh Accuses Others Of Trying To Create Anger

This is nothing short if hilarious. Listening to Republicans and conservatives talking about others being divisive is almost laughable these days. Consider the following comments made by conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, emerging as spokesperson for the Republican Party:

President Obama has the ability — he has the ability to inspire excellence in people’s pursuits. He has the ability to do all this. And yet he pursues a path, seeks a path that punishes achievement. That punishes earners. That punishes — and he speaks negatively of the country.

Ronald Reagan used to speak of the shining city on a hill. Barack Obama portrays America as a soup kitchen in some dark night in a corner of America that’s very obscure. He constantly is telling people that bad times are ahead, worse times are ahead. And it’s troubling because this is the United States of America.

… President Obama is so busy trying to create anger, and an atmosphere of crisis. He is so busy fueling the emotions of class envy that he has forgotten: It’s not his money he is spending.

The atmosphere of anger and crisis, created during a Republican eight-year administration, is what helped bring President Obama to the presidency. Limbaugh is comparing eight years of Ronald Reagan to a little over a month of president Obama.  It just shows the ignorance of Rush Limbaugh. He is already judging Obama harshly after riding president George W. Bush’s jock for most of the prior eight years.

Crooks and Liars:

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/rush-limbaughs-message-nation-libera

Rahm Emanuel Calls It Right On Republican Passion For And Fear Of Rush Limbaugh

Rahm Emanuel, one of the right-hand men of President Barack Obama (as his chief of staff) had a conversation with Bob Schieffer of CBS on one of the many morning talk shows. Emanuel had some interesting things to say about the fast-emerging leader of the Republicans: conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, who is the man in the Republican Party.

SCHIEFFER: We talked about Newt Gingrich a lot this morning and now you bring up Rush Limbaugh. Who do you think now speaks for the Republican Party?

EMANUEL: You just named him: it is Rush Limbaugh. He has laid out his vision, in my view. And he said it clearly. I compliment him for that. He’s been very up front and I compliment him for that. He’s not hiding. He’s asked for President Obama and called for President Obama to fail. That’s his view. And that’s what he has enunciated. And whenever a Republican criticizes him, they have to run back and apologize to him and say they were misunderstood. He is the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party. He has been up front about what he views and hasn’t stepped back from that, which is he hopes for failure. He said it and I compliment him for his honesty. But that’s their philosophy that is enunciated by Rush Limbaugh and I think that’s the wrong philosophy for America…

SCHIEFFER: Do you think that he’s that important that other Republicans are paying that much attention to him?

EMANUEL: Well, he was given the keynote basically at the [CPAC conference] to speak. When a Republican did attack him he clearly had a turn-around and comeback and basically said that he apologized and was wrong. I think do think he’s an intellectual force, which is why the Republicans pay such attention to him.

Republicans fear Rush Limbaugh and his grasp on the extreme right-wing of the conservative movement. This is good news for the Democrats because middle-America is not aligned with the extremist ideology of Rush Limbaugh. That means President Obama will be able to gain reelection or not on whether he is effective during the next three years of fixing a mess that took President George W. Bush eight years to create. Even if he is not highly successful in cleaning up the Bush mess, he will be given more leeway as voices of people like Rush Limbaugh, haters of America unless it is run by Republicans, become louder and louder. Rush Limbaugh is good for Democrats (even if liberals don’t fully realize it).

CPAC Proves Itself To Be Pathetic With Ann Coulter As A Featured Speaker

CPAC (which should stand for Conservative Political Ass Cowards) pretty much lost all credibility when it featured an unstable nut like Ann Coulter as one of its big speakers:

The one real problem with Obama on national security is… he’s putting more troops into Afghanistan, which is insane. This has been the focus of the terrorists — they’re all streaming across into Iraq, where we can win. Now it’s gonna be in Afghanistan, which could well be another Vietnam.

So for politically correct reasons, we’re moving the focus of the war on terrorism to a very bad place for us. The Russians couldn’t win there. Peter the Great couldn’t win there. Oh, but maybe the messiah can win there, ok.

Memo to Ann Coulter, we were in Afghanistan before Barack Obama became president of the United States of America. We sure as hell know that George W. Bush couldn’t win there since he had us spread thin involved in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s amazing how worthless nuts like Ann Coulter start falling from trees now that we have a Democrat as president of the United States of America. What is even more amazing is how our conservative brothers and sisters pick up these worthless nuts and feel they’ve hit the jackpot. Afghanistan can be another Vietnam, she says, but Iraq she seems to feel was such a great conflict we involved ourselves in.

Think Progress:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/28/coulter-obama-afghanistan/

Right-Wing Commentator Hopes The Leader Of The United States Of America To Fail

Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin appears increasingly hopeful that the leader of the United States of America will fail. Nothing like taking pride in our great nation. Apparently, for many conservatives, the U.S. is only a great nation if we have a Republican president. Apparently for a growing number of conservatives, it is only anti-American to criticize our leader if the leader is a Republican (other than that it is just fine to criticize the leader of our nation).

MALKIN: When the President proposes things like trillion dollar budgets that have earmarks that he claims do not exist, yes, I hope that fails.When he proposes the same kind of wealth re-distributionist policies that had appalled me under the Bush administration, yes, I hope they fail.

Malkin must have been asleep at the wheel when former president George W. Bush and the Republican Congress were driving us into war and running up deficits. Now, since we have a new blackpresident, Malkin and other Republicans are worried about deficits and spending. It makes you wonder what the big change is and whether or not it is just as simple as one person being affiliated with the party that begins with “D” and the other being affiliated with the party that begins with “R” … or maybe there is something else (perhaps a bit more sinister) driving the hypocrisy.

Think Progress:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/28/malkin-obama-fail/

Republican Crazy Talk: Those Who Criticize Sarah Palin Should Be Punished

As we know, Republicans continue to whine like babies about what they feel was the mainstream media’s unfair treatment of Sarah Palin (I wonder if Sarah Palin even knows what the “mainstream media” actually is). Since Republicans were beaten like drums in the November election, an effort has been on to try and help conservatives repackage themselves into something more attractive than what we saw from George W. Bush and John McCain. This all brings me to some recent comments made by right-wing filmmaker John Ziegler (who has a new film out about the alleged unfair treatment of Sarah Pain by the media). We still have no word yet when he will release a film about the unfair treatment of Barack Obama’s citizenship being questioned, being accused of being a Muslim, focusing on his associations while ignoring those of others and … well, you get the picture.

ZIEGLER: And I’ve got to say a few words about the Right in this situation too because sometimes we get what we deserve on this issue because we are oftentimes a lot of cowards. We don’t stand up for our own, we don’t stand up for what we believe, we allow ourselves to be tortured in the news media and a lot of us end up selling out to the other side for a guest spot on Meet The Press or Larry King Live because they know that a conservative saying something bad about another conservative is automatically going to be newsworthy and get them a higher profile. Well, those people ought to be ostracized and punished.

Ziegler is a right-wing hack who, like Bill O’Reilly and others, carries a torch of love for Sarah Palin and is working to defend her honor. However, Ziegler is good for one thing: He helps to illustrate the obsession of the Republicans in terms of clinging to a past that most people would love to forget. The last line makes you wonder if we’re still living in the United States of America.

Think Progress:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/28/ziegler-traitors-punished/

Think Progress Calls Out Fox News For Its Lack Of Balance

Fox News likes to tout itself as being a “fair and balanced” media outlet (even though we know otherwise when watching their prime-time broadcasts in particular, but also their news coverage). But, most objective people know otherwise with Fox.

Consider this from Think Progress:

This morning on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace welcomed Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) to discuss President Obama’s budget plan — with not a single congressional Democrat or White House representative present to defend it. Predictably, Kyl and Ryan attacked Obama’s budget (Kyl called it “terrifying”); Fox News gave Obama’s critics an 15-plus minute opportunity to slam the budget without interruption.

We are not surprised. Fox has a prime-time lineup dominated by right-wing commentators (Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Greta Van Susteren and frequent guests like Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, Megyn Kelly, Laura Ingraham, Juan Williams Mary Katharine Ham and others). Fox also blurs the line between commentary and reporting by having, as an example, Kelly interviewing people one minute and then serving as a right-wing mouthpiece another time. As a bit of a side note, you will hear some people refer to Juan Williams as a “liberal,” but the reality is that he agrees far too much with O’Reilly to ever be considered a liberal.

Think Progress:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/01/fns-gop-dominance/

Rush Limbaugh, The Face Of The Republican Party, Wants Our President Barack Obama To Fail

Is conservative leader Rush Limbaugh being anti-American?

Consider this headline from Media Matters for America that quotes the conservative commentator who has emerged as the leader of the Republicans:

LIMBAUGH: “The dirty little secret … is that every Republican in this country wants Obama to fail, but none of them have the guts to say so; I am willing to say it.”

He is the daddy of the Republicans and conservatives oftentimes referred to those who questioned or criticized then president George W. Bush “anti-American.” Will they continue to say the same things now that Barack Obama is president?

Media Matters:

http://mediamatters.org/countyfair/200902270021?f=h_top

Rush Limbaugh Speaks… Fox News Carries It Live … WHAT?!!?!

Here is an excerpt from a article on Fox News.com:

Rush Limbaugh was 15 minutes early to the stage, but no one was complaining Saturday evening in Washington, D.C., at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Quite the contrary. On the conference’s third and final day, the conservative talk radio host was the headliner, and the crowd greeted him with an immense ovation.

“Ladies and gentleman, this is my first ever address to the nation,” Limbaugh joked, noting that FOX News and C-SPAN were broadcasting the speech live.

Fox News carrying that event live was an insult to decency, objectivity and journalism (C-SPAN carries a wide variety of events and avoids bias – a claim Fox can’t credibly make).

Fox News:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/28/romney-wins-second-cpac-straw-poll/